Boyzone's tour-topping finale in Inverness
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
by Margaret Chrystall
TWENTY-FOUR hours earlier, BOYZONE might have been tempting fate to put Love Is Like A Hurricane as their Inverness set opener.
But with the threatened high winds never showing up, it was a more predictable cloud of loving that settled over the Northern Meeting Park on Saturday as three, possibly four generations of womankind gathered to enter the Boyzone.
Among the between 6 and 7,000 crowd, there were some blokes, to be fair. And at least the group’s banter and giddy last-night-of-the-tour jokiness should have made them feel at home too.
As should the well-rehearsed dance routines of girl group PARADE, who rolled out five numbers including their two singles Louder and Perfume, plus savvy covers of Chris Brown’s Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah and Cee-Lo Green’s Forget You plus their own Ticking On You.
The ginormous and piercingly girly cheer that greeted the arrival of 2005 X Factor winner SHAYNE WARD must be music to the ears of a star who seems determined to defy the showbiz script that wants to paint him as a yesterday’s man.
But despite being dropped by Simon Cowell’s label, looks like Shayne was right when he greeted the news by saying one door closes and a thousand others open – he’s about to star in West End 80s musical Rock Of Ages.
Shayne referred to his years performing around the country’s working men’s club with band TNT, featuring his current two backing singer Tracys, long before X Factor came calling.
And the way he played the crowd proved the years hadn’t been wasted.
Add to that the charisma, the voice, some good old-fashioned sex appeal and his always entertaining set – including his number one single That’s My Goal, Melt The Snow, No Promises and King Of My Castle.
There were no complaints when Shayne disappeared off the stage late in the set, only to reappear down at the barrier to reach out and touch as many of the crowd as he could.
Getting close enough to see the whites of his eyes – and OK yes, I stretched out my hand (nae luck, mind you) – it was clear he was really enjoying himself.
But earlier, it was hard to be sure that taking a little girl called Brooke up onstage to sing the rather sexy Breathless to her wasn’t "lovely but weird" as a fan wrote on Twitter after the show.
And technology made its presence felt through the evening.
There was Shayne following the "planking" craze with his security man Gordy taking a picture of the singer lying face down onstage with the crowd waving behind him – up online by the time we got home.
And later in Boyzone’s set after the group had sung Love Me For A Reason, Keith and Ronan had a go at filming each other on their phones to put up on their Twitter sites later.
But it was the flesh and blood real thing that the crowd wanted.
And talking to people before the show, it was clear they wanted these big bands coming to put Inverness on the map, as they saw it, with outdoor gigs for thousands.
And Boyzone’s show would only have added to the fire.
The familiar Brother tour set of songs – on the go for 21 stadium dates and the four August shows including ours – was what the group stuck to for this last show of the year.
A mix of seven songs from the Brother album with another 11 of their biggest hits, it’s a crowd-pleaser of a set with a soft centre focusing on the late Stephen Gateley.
And it does a good job of celebrating "our best friend and brother", as Mikey Graham introduced Better, and Stephen’s part in the Boyzone story.
With video and pictures of Stephen up on the backdrop behind the band, Gave It All Away, Better and getting the crowd to sing Stephen’s vocal in No Matter What was a popular tribute to the missing piece of the jigsaw.
And the real tragedy of Stephen’s death just added some emotional depth, as fans too were given their chance to mourn as well as dance, sing along and OK, fill their eyes with the fit line-up.
Like Take That, Boyzone have made the leap from boys to men long since.
But their charms as older guys with their own lives and interests still appeals to the one-time girls who now bring along their own kids, emotional journeys and fights with middle-age spread.
With the mix of old and new songs, it was inevitable that some of the earliest songs seemed to come from a long time ago.
Keith Duffy wore an ironic smile in Picture Of You as the four guys went through the slightly cheesy boyband dance moves designed for the youngsters they were.
But three songs from the end, when they formed into a circle, looking in at each other in Right Here Waiting, it brought a lump to the throat.
The seven-year break from 2000, Gateley’s death, Ronan’s affair, Keith’s success on TV, Shane finding God – all the ups and downs a band could have still see friends tied together by the music.
And they were having fun In Inverness.
Shane hammed it up in a Hey Jimmy hat, Keith suggested we help out Ronan’s upcoming charity swim by drinking the Irish Sea dry, so he could walk it.
When Keith’s own son Jay – who has just won a part in TV soap Hollyoaks – came on with his friends and joined the Boyzone circle, it was just a reminder that the Irish boys are fathers themselves.
But still clocking up the firsts…
As Ronan told the crowd before Brother song Ruby: "It’s Boyzone’s first gig in Inverness, so it’s a very big deal. It only took us 18 years – but we found you!"
Then he thanked fans for following Boyzone for all this time. Before the show, Keith had even decided to walk from the riverside restaurant Boyzone had dined in earlier to walk to the gig amongst fans and probably surprising a few by walking in through the main gate!
And though it is the O2 London show that will feature in the Brother tour DVD due out in November, CK Events’ Inverness show was a shining example of a well-run, great night out.
And as headliners, with a treasure trove of singalong hits and a stage presence as irresistible as chocolate cake, the Irish group can still cut it.
As Boyzone climbed back up to the top of the stage’s impressive staircase from which they’d risen up 90 minutes earlier, Ronan’s song Life Is A Rollercoaster was the finale number.
Weathering the storms and despite Boyzone’s ups and downs, they are still in the driving seat.
